BOSTON – The owner of J.G. Seafood Co., a fish cutting business in New Bedford, has been sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to 21 counts of evading federal employment taxes and structuring cash transactions, U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan said.
Jose J. Galinha, 52, of Fairhaven, Mass., was also ordered to pay $100,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.
Galinha allegedly cashed company checks in amounts just below the $10,000 federal reporting requirements, then used the money to pay his employees “under the table,” Sullivan said in a news release. When weekly cash wages exceeded $10,000, Galinha cashed company checks made payable to fictitious names at a local sports club of which he was vice-president.
Galinha reported none of the cash wages on employment tax returns from 1998 through 2002, Sullivan said, evading about $100,000 in taxes.
Galinha was arrested on April 8, 2004, in connection with those charges and was later released on a $50,000 unsecured bond.
